This is the Benevolent Genie, the generally lesser-used character type of the three. This is because the very existence of such a genie is a Deus ex Machina for most problems if the genie is so powerful they can just magic them away, becoming a Sidekick Ex Machina. One common way of adding conflict is to make the genie so ditzy that their usefulness can end up screwing things up, ultimately providing the wisher Unwanted Assistance, by limiting the number of wishes that can be made, or at least giving the genie some sort of exploitable weakness.

Note that the attitude of this genie can quickly revert to one of the other two if they're exploited by a character they dislike enough.

More often than not, the ultimate ending for this type of Genie tends to be its master wishing it free. Depending on the work, this sometimes makes the Genie have unlimited power or in other cases makes them normal humans.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Advertising

This Israeli ad for RC cola grants two wishes to three friends and gives them exactly what they want. The first asks for a beautiful palace and the most beautiful girl in the world. the genie gives him both the palace and a girl. the second asks for the girl's sister and a boat and the genie grants it with ease. The third wishes for the commercial product RC cola and then quietly points to his friends hinting at the genie that he wants his friends to disappear to have everything they wished for, and the genie catches on and makes the guy's friends disappear, leaving the last guy to have the girls, the boat and the palace.

Anime & Manga

The Goddesses from Ah! My Goddess run a wish-granting service to help balance karma's books, allowing someone who's been horribly unlucky but lived a good life to be rewarded with a single wish. They attempt to be as helpful as possible, though the wish-granting system itself isn't as benevolent (it operates in accordance with its own laws and doesn't cleanly fit into any of the three tropes).

Shenron may not be all that polite, but he grants you anything you want, no strings attached. Unless it is beyond his power to do so, in which case he will state plainly that he cannot do it, and demand a different wish. Note however, that "benevolent" here does not mean "good": Shenron is entirely neutral in all the series conflicts, and has no qualms granting the wishes of evildoers. He has even been known to warn people when a wish might have consequences they didn't consider:

In the Buu Saga, when Bulma tries to revive all the people killed by Majin Vegeta, Shenron asks if she really wants all the people back, which makes Yamcha hastily amend the wish to revive only good people.

In Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, when the dead start escaping Hell, the heroes try to wish them back into Hell, but Shenron warns that while he could do that, they would simply escape again immediately, and suggests a different wish since he's not powerful enough to fix what allowed them to escape.

In Dragon Ball Super, when Mai wishes for ice cream, he also gives her a mini fridge to store the ice cream she doesn't eat for later.

Porunga, the other wish-granting dragon from Dragon Ball Z, is even nicer, despite his rather frightening and demonic appearance. When our heroes wish for Krillin to come back to life, he repaired Krillin's clothes as a bonus. When our heroes wish for everyone on Earth to be resurrected after Buu killed them, he goes the extra mile and rebuilds all their cities and buildings free of charge. He has been known to be a little sarcastic at times, however. When faced with someone who can't decide what to wish for, he once said, "Wish for nothing three times so I can go." Most dragons would have threatened a mortal in that situation.

Alluka from Hunter × Hunter will grant anyone a wish, and done in the most beneficial way possible, to anyone who fulfills three of his requests. However, the requests vary in difficulty and expected willingness based on the scale of the previous wish. Said requests range from patting Alluka on the head to donating vital organs to him, and if someone fails to fulfill these requests, that person dies, along with a number of other acquaintances, again depending on the scale of the previous wish. A story arc revolves around Alluka, particularly the exact rules and exceptions of his wish-granting powers. (Alluka is not a Jackass Genie, as only the requests are potentially dangerous. No known wish asked of Alluka has ever been detrimental to the person who wished it.)

Oddly enough, Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica usually grants wishes to the exact spirit of the wish (the cost of the wish is horrible, but the wish itself is granted with no strings attached). The problem is that most people (especially at the age he recruits) either don't know what they truly want or don't think through the consequences their wish would have on them or their families, even when granted flawlessly.

The "Angel of the Wishes" from Only One Last Wish by Mia Ikumi varies between this and Jackass Genie depending on what you ask: as she hates people asking to be given something they could get on their own, such a wish will be interpreted in the worst possible way, but if the wish is something they couldn't possibly achieve (such as raise the dead) she'll go out of her way to help them

Comic Books

The genie in the XXXenophile short "Wish Fulfillment". Though he is bound by the three wishes limit, and acts as a Literal Genie when he wants to, he is very benevolent towards his "chosen" mistress. Specifically, he chose to interpret the villain's words in such a way that the heroine wasn't legally the same person as she'd been when she'd made her first three wishes and was therefore entitled to three more wishes. Specifically, it allowed her to get rid of the villain, then free the genie, whom she was in love with.

The d'jinni Anhikiahl in Poison Elves acts as a (somewhat) Benevolent Genie for Lusiphur, but only because she feels guilty for attacking him after being freed. When Lusiphur tries the old "wishing for more wishes" trick she points out that she can be a Jackass Genie too if he doesn't keep his wishes reasonable. (It later turns out that the wishes she ended up granting weren't that problem-free either, due to certain "mandatory bylaws".)

The Fisherman and his Wife has its fisherman protagonist spare the life of a talking fish. The fish is so grateful that it offers the man unlimited wishes. The man consults his wife about what to wish for... which was probably inadvisable. Each time the fish grants a wish, the wife becomes increasingly greedy and power hungry, to the point where she wishes to be Queen of the Universe. This is the last straw for the fish and it revokes all of its gifts.

Or, in another version, rather than revoking his wishes, the fish grants the final one with a clever twist: when the fisherman tells the fish that his wife wants to be like God, they are returned to destitution, as God has no need for titles or material possessions.

In yet other versions, the fish would ask what the fisherman's wish is, and fisherman would say he wished his wife would be happy, to which the fish would make the wife happy with what she already has.

In a famous Russian version, the wish that finally pushes the fish over the edge is when the wife wishes to be the ruler of the sea, and to command the fish itself.

A similar fairy tale talks about a woman who lives in a vinegar bottle who's wish for a proper house is overheard by a passing fairy. Unfortunately, not only does the woman show no gratitude, but every time the fairy returns she wishes for a more prominent position in the world, until she wishes to be the Pope.

The original version of Aladdin in Arabian Nights has two genies, and they both seem to fit this trope, although they seem to be unable to disobey or harm anyone able to command them (as the lamp genie follows the evil magician loyally when he gains the lamp). The ring genie is later unable to directly help Aladdin against the magician, as he cannot undo anything his much stronger brother has done, but is still willing to give him a useful warning that helps him defeat the villain.

Fan Works

In II, Eden Aspect (also known as Destiny) is an interesting version of this. While she is very much a Benevolent Genie, she's also the Big Bad of the story, a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants the Elements of Harmony and is willing to do anything to get them.

In the Batman/Ranma/Ah! My Goddess crossover A Wish for Batman: Batman is granted a single wish; reluctantly, he wishes for "the only thing he could" — that Gotham be safe. His wish is granted, and much more: "Even though he wished for what he thought he had to, he still got what he wanted. That's what we do."

Madoka Magica dōjinshi Thanks Kyubey is based on this premise: What if Kyubey were honest, helpful, and empathetic, more like a traditional magical mascot than the canonical Manipulative Bastard?

The Invader Zim fanfic Gaz Dreams of Genie has the titular genie, Azie, who grants Gaz three wishes after Gaz breaks her lamp, freeing her. While she's a little condescending to Gaz and trolls her a bit, she's mostly pretty helpful in granting Gaz's first two wishes, and tries to give her honest advice when she's carefully contemplating her last one. Though when this final wish results in her and Gaz switching lives, she smugly gives Gaz a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, informing her that it would have happened anyway because Gaz broke the lamp, but that this curse could have been avoided if she'd only made a Selfless Wish, then leaves Gaz trapped in the the restored lamp.

The Genie is the Trope Posterboy for this, even interpreting an unconscious head bob in the best possible way (as "Genie, I wish for you to save my life"). In fact, he's nice to a fault — when Jafar takes control of him late in the film, it doesn't even occur to him to try to use some Literal Genie interpretations to screw Jafar out of his wishes (for example, simply teleporting Jafar to a Death World when he wishes to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, or making Jafar the "sultan" of an oasis). Fortunately, Aladdin himself thinks of a loophole and tricks Jafar into using it. The Genie doesn't even realize what Aladdin's plan is until after he already granted the wish. (Compare Eden from The Series under "Western Animation", who is smart enough to play this as a Zigzagging Trope.)

The sequel Aladdin: The Return of Jafar shows that Genies are not required to be benevolent. And the only reason he counted that head nod as a wish is because Aladdin tricked him into a free one before. Had Aladdin not done that, it probably wouldn't have been counted as one. That and he really liked Aladdin and actively wanted to save his life but was limited by his own previous statements, so he took any opportunity he could get.

Some of the limitations may be self-imposed. The Genie claims he can't bring people back from the dead, but implies that it is because they Came Back Wrong rather than an actual limitation. However, it may also have been him clowning around. The prohibition against killing is definitely a real limitation, though; Jafar mentions in the sequel that he is unable to kill directly, and despite all of his attempts, he fails to kill anyone, even Iago, though the latter notes, "You'd be surprised what you can live through."

In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, the genie is a curious but good-natured fellow who even tells the nephews that he is "eternally grateful" when they first free him. He takes no pleasure in granting wishes that are liable to cause trouble or are otherwise harmful, but he can't resist for long before he is somehow compelled into bringing it into existence anyway. He even warns them early on to try and keep the wishes relatively subtle, as flashy displays of his magic invariably cause trouble. Not least of which is a former master of his, an immortal sorcerer who has a talisman that gives him limitless wishes and a very cruel nature. Two other wishes the genie was forced to grant him included sinking Atlantis back when it was a prime vacation spot after the sorcerer couldn't get a reservation, and causing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (in his words, "Poor Pompeii! Vesuvius wouldn't have blown its top if Merlock hadn't blown his!"). The genie openly weeps when recounting these facts.

Films — Live-Action

Fakrash al-Amash (Burl Ives) in 1964's The Brass Bottle is a djinn who is so grateful to architect Harold Ventimore (Tony Randall) for freeing him from his bottle, that he is continually making extravagant gifts to him — all of which only complicate Ventimore's life and make him miserable. Barbara Eden is featured in this film, though not as a djinniyah.

Josephus in Bernard and the Genie befriends the much-harassed former art dealer Bernard and grants him unlimited wishes. Although they as expected mess things up at first (Bernard gets arrested for having the Mona Lisa on his wall, and stabbing a policeman with a sword), Josephus later reveals that he can just turn back the clock, and they set everything straight. They then decide that since it's Christmas, they should make a few Christmas miracles and spread good cheer. (This includes getting back at Bernard's cheating ex-girlfriend and ex-best friend, as well as his ex-boss, who is played by Rowan Atkinson.) Josephus only became one after the wish "I wish you would stop trying to kill me", however. Before that he was more "pissed-off former thief with a large scimitar who had been trapped in a bottle for thousands of years."

The titular genie in Kazaam (played by Shaq, of all people) turns out to be a good friend to Max far beyond the typical master-genie relationship. When prompted by Max, Kazaam reveals that his greatest wish is to be free, a djinn (whom Kazaam considers a myth). After the Big Bad kills Max to claim Kazaam, Kazaam does the impossible, kills his new master, and revives Max (despite claiming earlier that he can't bring the dead back to life). In return, Max uses his final wish to free Kazaam.

In the Italian movie Superfantagenio the genie, played by Bud Spencer, not only instructs his master on how to get the best of his wishes, but when temporarily Brought Down to Normal (as his powers need to recharge at night) he decides to protect him from a group of gangsters with his bare hands (this being a Bud Spencer character, he makes short work of them), and when a villain attempts to take his lamp and use it to Take Over the World he's willing to sink it in the Bermuda Triangle (and sentence himself to stay imprisoned there forever) rather than have his powers misused.

Literature

Starik Khottabych ("Old Man Hottabych") by Lazar Lagin is about a Soviet boy in the 1930s who accidentally frees the genie Hassan Abdul-rahman ibn Khattab (and disrespectfully dubs him "Hottabych"). The book is about Hottabych adapting to Soviet everyday life while trying to "serve" his master. Later in the book, Hottabych finds his Aloof Big Brother, a classical malevolent genie, who eventually gets sealed away again. It should be noted that Hottabych's brother wasn't always malevolent. However, the centuries of being trapped in a jug led him to change his mindset from "I will grant the person who frees me 3 wishes" to "I will kill the person who frees me in the manner he chooses".

There's a short story where the main character is so stupid that he uses up all three of his wishes on the rhetorical style of literal wishing, because he thinks he's talking not to a genie, but to some annoying guy who came into his house for no reason. Two of the wishes really did go to waste, but his second wish was "I wish you jerks would just stop giving me a hard time." After his third wish, he realizes that he just blew his chance to make some good wishes. But the next morning, he discovers that all the bad drivers on the freeway are staying out of his way, his boss is uncharacteristically understanding of his difficulties, and the IRS has sent him a letter saying that he is now exempt from all the duties of a taxpayer. His life promises to be much easier with this wish granted.

Isaac Asimov's Azazel is a demon (or, in some stories, a hyper-techalien) who grants wishes to his master's friends. He really does do his best, but virtually all of his wishes end up backfiring horribly anyway.

In Isaac Bashevis Singer's book for children, A Tale of Three Wishes, three children go out on the night of Rosh Hashanah because they've heard that Heaven opens its doors then—and anyone who sees the doors open will be granted one wish. One of the boys wants to be as rich as King Solomon; the second boy wants to be as wise as the Talmudic scholar, Moses Maimonides; and the little sister of the boy who wants to be rich wants to be as beautiful as Queen Esther. Each wish gets wasted—but, when the kids grow up, the boy who wanted to be rich becomes a hard-working and extremely wealthy businessman called "a modern Solomon"; the boy who wanted to be wise becomes a Talmudic scholar known as "the Maimonides of our time"; and the little girl who wanted to be beautiful spends all her time helping her people, to the point where everyone says she's as lovely and as kind as Queen Esther.

As You Wish by Jackson Pearce is about a genie (known as jinn in their universe) who appears to a random girl, Kayla, and they fall in love with each other. The jinn (who has no name) is supposed to be more of a Literal Genie, but he falls in love with her and ends up being nice to her.

Somer, from A Fantasy Attraction, embodies this trope quite nicely, being, according to him, a guardian genie; and does in fact spend most of the story helping and protecting the other characters.

Near the end of The Seventh Tower, Tal meets a being known as the Old Khamsoul, which is some kind of sentient whirlwind that is said to be an oracle: you may ask it one question, which it will answer truthfully. Tal asks several questions, each of which the Old Khamsoul says don't count because, really, if Tal thought about them a bit, he already knew the answers. Ultimately Tal decides that he will come back one day when he has found a worthy question, and the Old Khamsoul replies that it will be waiting.

An interesting version in Mikhail Akhmanov's Earth Shadow. As Dick finds out after returning to Earth That Was, the supposedly apocryphal story of the discoverer of interstellar travel about an entity that naturally evolved on the Internet, whom he dubbed "Genie", is actually true. The Genie managed to survive the scattering of humanity across the galaxy (which, naturally, resulted in the destruction of the being's natural habitat, the Internet) by downloading itself into a large memory storage unit on the Moon. While the Genie almost never interacts with humans, he did help the first man who found him and gave the man one question to ask. The man asks "How can I save humanity?" The Genie provides him the answer in the form of the Ramp, a method of creating wormholes between any two points. In the end, Dick convinces the Genie to deactivate the generator that creates a No Warping Zone throughout the Solar System.

The Master Key: The Demon of Electricity, who gives Rob stupendous inventions that could solve all human problems with no catch, and does what he asks, even including pressing the Reset Button.

Snow White: You may ask for one wish, and I will try and grant it. But be sure to ask for the right thing. Virginia: Okay, I wish... I wish that Dad's bad luck was over. Oh! And that his back wasn't broken anymore. Snow White: Strictly speaking, that's two wishes. But it's done.

The Twilight Zone episode "I Dream of Genie" features a genie who can only grant one wish and so encourages the man who finds him to carefully consider what he really wants. The hero rejects various ordinary wishes for wealth, love and power, and finally wishes to become a Benevolent Genie himself, one who can grant three wishes and arranges for his lamp to be found by the homeless and needy.

You Wish features a genie who is accidentally freed by a single mother with two kids. The mother rejects various ordinary wishes for wealth, love and power, and through the short series of only 13 episodes mother, genie, and children learn to function as a family helping each other become better "people".

The heroic Imagin, who choose of their own free will to help the Kamen Riders battle their evil brethren, and do so without granting wishes — since wish-granting opens a portal to the past, which lets evil Imagin wreak havok. The few times they do grant wishes, it's always for a noble purpose, like Gentle Giant Kintaros turning Ryotaro's New Year's Resolution into a wish so he could pull a Big Damn Heroes moment.

Kintaros deserves special mention because he started off contracted to a young man who wanted To Be a Master of karate; Kintaros decided to fulfill the wish by helping him train (the fact that Kin-chan trained his contractor in Sumo rather than karate owes more to his being ditzy rather than malice), which completely surprised and confused the heroes. He does eventually go back in time, but only to protect his contractor from a more traditional Imagin, and is mortally wounded in the process. Ryotaro recognizes Kintaros' noble nature and offers a contract in order to save his life, which results in his joining the Den-O team.

The Japanese Super Sentai series Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger featured a genie named Djinn who was found by a group of children, and used to grant a number of simple and childish but otherwise harmless wishes. Djinn truly seems to enjoy granting the wishes of children, however, and plays with them happily until the witch, Bandora, tries to turn the genie's formidable power to her side.

The titular character of Jinni Zeala, who just wants to help the player PARTY!

The main character in Genie playfully teases the wizard who summoned her.

Puppet Shows

While not a genie, in Muppet Classic Theater Gonzo plays a wish-granting satyr in the story of "King Midas". He initially offers King Midas a wish in exchange for his life, and at the end of the story, after Queen Midas admits that there are more important things than gold, he decides, since they were such good sports, to grant them one more wish for free.

Fraggle Rock has two episodes in which Wembley encounters a wish-fulfilling creature; while the first one is a Jackass Genie who initially refuses to grant any wishes, the second one (a spider-fly that Wembley rescued and turned out to be a sort-of Fairy Godmother) is a clear example of this trope, even stopping Wembley from wasting his one wish on trivialities.

Tabletop Games

In Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, the Wish-Granting Engine itself appears as an incarnate spirit (either Lilimund Cartaign or Laodemus Schwan, depending on personal take) and is active as a masked heroic adventurer; they are also willing to do favours for characters, such as serving as a substitute parent to get the Magical Detective enrolled at School. It's only the actual wishes that are prone to backfiring, and even then that depends on how true a wish is to Chuubo's own spirit; wishing for a best friend, for example, has had no disastrous side effects at all, while ice-cream-related wishes tend to go to hell quite frequently.

The Dungeons & Dragons spell "Wish" is more famous for the opposite trope, but the spell description does instruct the Game Master to treat it this way if the request is within reason, and lists several specific effects that are guaranteed to work without issue.

While their wicked efreet cousins are Literal Genies at best, the rare noble djinn are quite genial and Good-aligned. Though their Wishes still might have limits, they generally won't try to screw the wisher over unless the wisher's done something to majorly piss them off.

In King's Quest VI, evil Vizier Abdul Alhazred has a genie named Shamir who keeps trying to get you to kill yourself in creative ways. It's explained that genies don't have personalities of their own, rather they reflect the personality of their master. This makes them "benevolent" in the sense that they can't subvert their master's wishes. Once you capture Shamir's lamp, he's relieved that he no longer has to work for a villain.

Shara in Sonic and the Secret Rings. She has unlimited wishes but she's limited in power and certainly can't do anything against the all mighty (3-wish) granter and villain Erazor.

Despite being the Big Bad, Erazor unwillingly acts as a Benevolent Genie in the end. Erazor's triumph is completely undone when Sonic reveals that he has Erazor's lamp and forces him to fix everything.

Solmyr in Heroes of Might and Magic III to some extent. He was so grateful to the man who freed him from a genie bottle that he swore himself to his service for the rest of his life (for all eternity, since the man happened to be immortal). Although in the next game Solmyr's master turned crazy/evil. But HoMM IV takes place on a different planet and Solmyr had promised to be in his service "as long as he walks the earth" or some-such. So he finally had a loophole to escape his master. Different world, no longer bound.

Following the movie Aladdin, Genie is very much a benevolent genie in Kingdom Hearts I. During the first boss fight against Jafar, although the Genie is forced to serve Jafar and attack Sora's party, his attacks are generally very weak, he usually says, "I'm sorry, Al," and "Get out of the way!" before attacking, and sometimes after an attack will generate health balls for the party to pick up, increasing their health points. Later, after Aladdin wishes for Genie's freedom, Genie agrees to travel with Sora to help find Jasmine. He even comments that, although he is no longer required to grant Aladdin's wishes, he's quite happy to do him a favor.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Genie is actually somewhat disappointed that Aladdin always asks such simple favors from him when he would be happy to do much more, like dispelling "one measly little sandstorm," and putting Agrabah back "exactly the way it was" after Jafar's defeat, when Genie wants to make improvements like adding swimming pools.

RPG Shooter: Starwish has a bit of examination of wishes and genies. However, the Wishing Star herself will go above and beyond the call of duty to be benevolent in her last act. She'll give you what you want, likely far beyond the wording of a single wish, and usually do what she can to help you finish off your chosen Romance Sidequest. If you can already accomplish the wish yourself, she'll say so, explain how, and then give you another gift for free. And in one ending, she goes out of her way to give everyone on your crew their wishes.

Web Comics

Ship of Ship In A Bottle is a good example. Even when she disagrees with her master, she makes sure to help him as needed and grants wishes as accurately as possible. It probably also helps that she and her master are sex buddies.

Obscure web comic Sakana Yama had main character Urchin find a genie, who granted him the wishes he wanted. However, Urchin only used his wishes to improve the lives of his friends, keeping none for himself. This impressed the genie so much, he granted Urchin unlimited wishes. (Not that the genie ever told him that.)

Angelique of The Wotch is one of the few genies that actually likes humanity. Unfortunately, when she's summoned, she's summoned through a cursed bottle that forces her to grant any wish she hears from anyone, not just Jason, who summoned her. Some of the wish-granting on poorly-done wishes is done in Jackass Genie style, but it's implied that Angie isn't doing it deliberately.

In Krakow!, a character makes a wish for a perfect girlfriend, and specifies that she must be "an airplane". She has metal wings and fins and consumes gasoline. Could be a Literal Genie, but it's hard to imagine what else that wish could have possibly meant. Of course, the character's roommate claims that it was nothing more than a hallucination due to a case of the flu.

Web Original

Dorf Quest has Aldwin seeking out a djinn and wishing for Goldmoon to be brought back to life, which surprisingly turns out well with no negative side effects (at least, none that were the djinn's fault). It may have helped that Aldwin had the foresight to ask the djinn what it might want in return - and his dialogue even implies that it would have done so even without payment.

SCP-1481 used to be this kind of genie, by his own admission... until some Jerkass wished he was stoned out of his head, just to be a dick. Now, SCP-1481 is rendered completely incompetent because of his drugged-out state, and the really sick thing about it is that the jerk who wished for him to be in this state used his second wish to make his first wish irreversible... and then walked away without even bothering to make a third wish.

Mr. Deeds qualifies, though despite being a wish-granter he does not actually use magic to grant wishes, or possibly he does but it has arbitrary limitations.

Following up from the movie, Genie is not even obligated to help Aladdin or Jasmine at all anymore. Since Aladdin used his final wish to free him, Genie is no longer a true genie. He just does so because he likes them. (And there are hints that they're better friends than any other humans he's known.)

There's a female genie called Eden, who is also benevolent. Unlike Genie, however, she's wise enough to become a Literal Genie when dealing with Jerkass Abis Mal. When the villain wishes Genie imprisoned in the bottom of the ocean, she gives him an escape hatch because Mal didn't say forever. When Mal wishes to be the biggest and strongest being in the world, she includes a method of relieving him of his power; and when the little girl who finds her wishes for everything to be all right, she turns Abis Mal into a bug as a "freebie". She also goes out of her way to encourage the little homeless girl to come up with better wishes; when the girl wishes for a sandwich, she convinces her to wish for a lifetime supply of food instead. She even acknowledges that she has to play with the rules a bit for this, and has the girl say the wish along with her.

A different episode features a benevolent "genie" surrounded by jackasses — it's a little fuzzy creature that grants the wish of whoever scares it as a defense mechanism. Iago befriends it, and at episode's end, shows it a mirror while screaming. "Squirt scared himself", so its own wish is granted — to return to the homeland of its species.

Captain N: The Game Master once had the heroes stumble upon a genie who granted their wishes as they intended them. It was a critique of the newly-developed patch devices; Kevin wishes for enhanced skills, and quickly realizes Victory Is Boring. Mega Man wishes for enhanced strength, and nearly knocks down the palace. Princess Lana immediately wishes that "no one had made any wishes", returning things to normal for the moment so they can get on with the plot.

Cosmo and Wanda in The Fairly OddParents!, since making Timmy happy is their job as fairy godparents. On the other hand, they sometimes make mistakes, and Timmy's wishes can have unintended consequences. They do warn Timmy about the possibility of a wish backfiring and urge him to alter his wishes to minimize risk if possible.

It also seems that sometimes they have to be literal, or at least, can't undo something they've already granted literally. Or something; it kind of changes with the plot. They always mean well, though.

One episode of Garfield and Friends featured Odie finding a genie at the beach, who was a rather nice guy. Since Odie only had one wish (to fly), he even decided to give Odie his wish three times so that his wishes wouldn't be wasted.

In Ali Baba Bunny, Daffy Duck briefly obtains a treasure that includes the services of a genie who really wants to help him... but Daffy, being who he is, attacks the genie as a rival for his treasure. The consequences are not good.

Smokey, the Jim Backus-voiced genie in the Bugs Bunny cartoon "A Lad in His Lamp"n is addled but effervescent and benevolent. He gets cross when Bugs, in a pickle with a greedy sultan, interrupts him a couple of times.

The Meeseeks from Rick and Morty will generally act this way provided the wishes are kept fairly simple (though they are capable of more complex things such as ensuring your popularity at school within a single afternoon or assuage your concerns of your marriage). However, because existence is pain for them and they only exist so long as their summoner's wish remains unfulfilled, they become desperate and violently insane if they take too long to fulfill a wish; when unable to improve Jerry's golf game the Meeseeks simply decide to kill him, reasoning that if he's dead then he'll have all the strokes off of his game.

An animated version of the "The Fisherman and his Wife" tale on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show has a happier ending (and also replaces the fish with a mermaid, but that's not important). The story follows the same plot, but in the end, the mermaid asks the fisherman what he wanted. When he says that all he wants is for his wife to be happy, the mermaid reverts things back to the way they were before — except now the fisherman's wife appreciates what she already has instead of complaining about what she lacks.

The genie in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Shazzan promptly does whatever the protagonists want. Except taking them home, which is ostensibly the whole plot. Mostly, he just answers wishes of "save us from this evil guy who wants your power". In the one cartoon where the bad guy succeeds, he uses a Literal Genie interpretation of his wish to keep from killing his "real" masters.

The title characters of the Nick Jr. show Shimmer and Shine. The three daily wishes they grant to their human friend Leah don't always go as planned, but they mean no harm with them, and always help her out in the end.

The Emperor's New School: Every Giftmas, Papa Santos grants one wish to each person in the "nice" list. Kuzco wishes to become the Emperor again but he's on the top of the "naughty" list.

Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats episode "Wishful Thinking" has a cat genie. The genie is not really bad but he does uses Mungo in his favor to be freed. He does wishes at the end that all his dreams come true (metaphorically).

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy